A Father's Lament
by Deep Forest Green
Summary: (Ch. 1): Thénardier's last words to his daughter after learning of her death. (Ch. 2): Thénardier and Valjean have one last conversation at Cosette's wedding. Rated T for language. Disclaimer: Don't own, don't profit.
1. Chapter 1

I loved you, you stupid bitch, couldn't you see that? You were my favorite girl, so much more useful than your worthless sister. Don't you realize what you've done? Left me alone with that twit? Now we're going off to America and we're never going to speak of you again, do you hear me? It'll be like you never existed. Better if you hadn't.

Gutless wench, throwing yourself at that Pontmercy nitwit. Couldn't you see he was too far above you? And you went and killed yourself over him, because you were too much of a coward to face your father after you'd stabbed him in the back. Isn't that right, you filthy traitor? Don't try to deny it now. You hated me. You hated all of us, your whole family. You thought you could hide it, deny being a Thénardier. But it catches up to you, let me be the first to tell you that.

And I don't even have your body. Don't know where to find it. I can track down any corpse but the putrid waste you left behind. Tossed into some mass grave with all those idiot bourgeois students and left to rot. You're dead and Marius went on living. Since when is that fair? Huh? What bastard arranged for that to happen? Just another nameless speck on the heap of furniture they call a barricade. Honestly, 'Ponine, I thought you were above that. I thought I'd taught you better. How to survive. But I never taught you why to survive, did I? A Thénardier doesn't need a reason. A Thénardier knows to just hold out because the tide will turn in his favor sooner or later, one way or another. Luck, you git- it's all about luck!

What happened to the errand girl who knew her way around the city and feared no man? What happened to the little slut who could fend off any attacker with just her bare hands, the girl who could go for days on end without hardly a bite to eat? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find loyalty like that? You always came coming back, 'Ponine, because you were too goddamn afraid. 'Parnasse and 'Sous and the rest all had ten times more brain than you, you disgusting worm. Just a lovesick street rat, that's all you were ever meant to be.

You ungrateful slob, it should be me who died. What part of that didn't you understand? Your old, decrepit father, with his rheumatism and liver spots and cataracts so bad he can hardly see, he should have been the first to go. How dare you think you can check out early, just like that, without even telling me? Or even your sister- don't you even trust her? You've scarred her for life, 'Ponine, and left me to deal with that sobbing mess. I can't count the number of times I slapped her grubby, flabless cheek and told her that big girls don't cry. Because of you, 'Ponine. You wasted a one-way ticket to America. Serves you right. You would've gotten over that boneheaded baron and lived to tell the tale. You were supposed to be a strong girl. We were all counting on you, and you let us down.

Fucking imbecile. See if I care. You were willing to abandon your family for some boy you'd just met. I hope there is a hell just so your putrid soul will have a place to burn. After what you've been through, it would probably be a relief.

(spits on the ground and walks away)

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**A/N: I have an idea for how to turn this into a two-shot. I always wondered how Thénardier would react to losing his child, and thought it might have influenced his decision to move to America. This is my first time writing in Thénardier's POV, and it's really hard, especially when it's not comic-relief!Thénardier. Anyway, I hope you thought it was IC. Thanks for reading. Tell me if you think it's worth continuing.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Monsieur le Baron du Thénard?"

Monsieur Fauchelevent entered the main hallway and faced the other man sympathetically. He was rambling and raving to himself, tears shining on his scraggly cheeks. Cosette had insisted that her father attend the wedding, and Fauchelevent made it his business to see to the well-being of the guests. All of his internal alarms went up at the sight of this eerily familiar man, but a guest was a guest and he had a duty.

"Monsieur, why are you crying? There is no reason to be sad. It is a wedding; you ought to be happy." Fauchelevent put his arm on Thénard's shoulder, sounding much more cheerful than he felt. He could use a good comfort session himself.

"What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. Nothing except that my damn stupid daughter went and got herself killed," said Thénard, gesturing emphatically.

"Monsieur, I am so terribly sorry. I cannot even begin to imagine your loss," said Fauchelevent, though he cringed inwardly at how a father could speak of his daughter in such coarse terms. Why was he at the wedding? he wondered. What was his connection to the bride or groom?

"I feel I have lost my daughter too today, though my loss cannot of course compare to yours," Fauchelevent went on.

"You're the bride's father?" Thénard asked.

Fauchelevent nodded sadly.

"I should have been the bride's father," Thénard snarled.

Fauchelevent raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Her name was Éponine, all right?" Thénard snapped. "She was beautiful. At least, she should have been. She used to be. She could have been, if you hadn't cheated me all those years ago and forced us to move to that awful tenement in Saint-Michel. You remember- you saw her in her fine dresses, back when she was a pretty little thing. I loved to spoil that girl. Yeah, her life was cold and dark, but she was tough as nails, Monsieur. And she was in love with the Pontmercy brat. Damned if I know why. Died for him, saving his life at the barricade. I only found out later- I don't know why you didn't bother to tell me when you came through the sewer with him on your back. I don't suppose saving both of your lives could have warranted a little 'Oh, your daughter is dead'. My son and wife are dead too, but do you hear me bitching about it?"

"Éponine... saved Pontmercy's life?"

"Oh, the ungrateful git didn't bother to tell you? After she took a bullet for him? Figures." He snorted, huffed, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'll be blunt, Monsieur, I came here to ask for money. I want to get out of here, go somewhere far away and never come back. Of course, you could have me arrested if you so chose, now that you know who I am. Go ahead; I don't really care. You'd get life in prison too, or maybe death, because I'd turn you in as well. I thought maybe we could reach an agreement of mutual silence."

Fauchelevent considered this offer for a minute. "I will not give you the money you ask for, Monsieur. I gave you a great sum of money many years ago, far more than what you had earned, and you squandered it. You have no one but yourself to blame for that loss. Furthermore, I will advise Messieurs Pontmercy and Gillenormand to refuse any such requests."

Thénard lost his temper and began to make a scene. "I saved your life, you numskull! You and Pontmercy both! You realize that if I get arrested, I'll turn you in whether you squeal on me first or not! And the only way to guarantee that is for me to move far away!"

"I will agree to your second request, however," Fauchelevent continued calmly, "not because I fear life in prison, but because prison is an experience I would not wish on any man. You have always stood out to me, Monsieur, because you are the one person I have met who seems incapable of redemption. I pity you deeply, you and your entire family, and recognize that much of what you do is shaped by factors beyond your control, and that you, like me, have been dealt an unjust hand in life; but that is only part of it. You made the choice to be greedy and cruel and petty and hateful. You had several opportunities to change for the better, but you never did. I believe you when you say that you love your daughter, but I think that what you call love is a very different thing than what I would call love. And if what you say about her death is true- "

"Of course it's true!" Thénard interrupted, outraged.

"-if you had seen it with your own eyes, then my daughter and Monsieur Pontmercy and our entire family would owe her a great debt. I find it hard to believe that a child of yourself and the Madame would have acted so selflessly, but- "

"He gave her more than I ever could," Thénard burst out, sobbing. "That boy next door who never noticed her, he was more of a light in her life than her own father. Do you have any idea how that feels?" He didn't know anymore whether he was shedding crocodile tears or real ones. But he suspected the latter.

Fauchelevent winced and realized that perhaps the only other person who understood what he was going through was a man whom he had despised for years. Perhaps fate had brought them together one last time for a reason.

"It doesn't matter if you give me the money or not," Thénard continued, straightening up. "I'll get it one way or the other. My daughter may have lost the will to live, but that doesn't mean that I have to. It's a terrible thing for a father to outlive his child, Monsieur, but in our world it happens all the time. We can't just curl up and die- that's for animals. Moving on is what makes us human. We feel bad, but we get over it and move on." In that one speech, Thénard had philosophized more than he ever had in his entire life.

Fauchelevent saw the irony in being lectured on the superiority of humans by a man who was physically, mentally and morally little more than a monkey, but Thénard's words had cut straight to his heart. Had God intended for him to hear these words because He had yet another plan for him? Because frankly, he didn't think he could handle any more of God's tasks.

"You and I have a lot in common, Monsieur, though you may be loath to admit it," Thénard went on. Fauchelevent had learned that if you say nothing, this man will just keep on talking and eventually tells you something useful. "We both know what it is to live in fear of the law, to have to move around, wear disguises, change our names to avoid being caught. We're either really smart, or really lucky. Now we've reached a crossroads, and we have a choice to make. Either we can wallow in self-pity, or we can keep on doing what we're good at and survive. I must say, you have an odd survival strategy; it's like nothing I've ever seen before. But it seems to work for you, so to each his own. I can see that you've decided not to open up to me, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't open up to me either. Well, I want you to know that this is the most honest I've ever been in my life, to anyone outside my family. You must have done something to earn that from me. I don't much see the use in lies anymore, so now I'll just be out of your hair. But someday you're going to think back and wish that you'd talked to me, Valjean."

Valjean couldn't help smiling faintly as Thénard slipped out into the bright light of day. As much as he hated the man, he was one of the recurring figures from the odd, nightmarish dream that was his life; and a tiny part of him was sad to see him slipping away, as if it brought Valjean one step closer to dying. He ought to turn him in, if he accomplished nothing else good in his life. It was a shame, really. Perhaps, with one gesture of kindness or mercy, like the gift of the candlesticks- No, Jean Valjean corrected himself, shaking his head. Some people didn't respond to mercy and kindness, either because they had too much conscience- like Javert- or none at all. He couldn't help feeling, though, as if he, or the universe, had failed Thénardier. How could he tell his daughter to forgive him, she who had suffered for years at their hands, when he could hardly do the same himself? How could he in good spirit let this scoundrel roam free to continue to cheat others as he had them?

But how could he turn himself in, and break Cosette's heart?

Jean Valjean turned back inside the cathedral and put on a smile as the bride took his hand for him to give her away. Only Cosette could get that bad taste out of his mouth.

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**A/N: My headcanon is that Thénardier cares about Éponine in much the same way that Gillenormand cares about Marius. Considering how much I hate Gillenormand, that's definitely not a defense of Thénardier- but I think there was something there. **


End file.
